Episode Summary
On this episode of Supply Chain Now, Scott Luton interviews Shannon Vaillancourt with Ratelinx.
Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] It’s time for Supply Chain Now Radio. Broadcasting live from the Supply chain capital of the country, Atlanta, Georgia. Supply Chain Now Radio spotlights the best in all things supply chain the people, the technology, the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.
[00:00:29] Good morning, Scott Luton here with you on Supply chain. Now welcome back to the show. We’re not broadcasting in Atlanta today. We are in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona. I wish y’all could see the the that the picture. I’vegot just outside this big window. We are here. Scottsdale is home to Dimka. We love our acronyms and supply chain, the diverse manufacturing supply chain alliance. Dimka is hosting its manufacturing supplier development conference here. There’s about one hundred and twenty or so manufacturing supply chain thought leaders really from across industry that’s talking diversity and talking supplier development and tackling some really neat issues between the keynotes and the breakout sessions today show. We’re really talking logistics, intelligence and we’re gonna be speaking with a recognized leader in the space. Stay tuned. One quick programing note. Like all of our podcasts, supply chain. Now you can find us wherever you get your podcasts. YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, you name it. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a single thing. OK, so let’s welcome in our guest today, featured guest today, Shannon Vaillancourt, president and founder.
[00:01:41] Right link. Shannon, how you doing? I’m doing great. Thank you for having me. You see that deer in the moment? Headlight our deer in a headlight moment where I want to make sure I got your last name right. So everybody freaks out with that. Well, you know, I’ve been known to get my kids names wrong, so I’m glad we’re one for one today. So, Shannon, I’ve really enjoyed speaking with a couple of your team members, Corey and a few others and doing some homework around. Right. Links. It seems like our own crisis quite a streak. And appreciate your time today as we kind of get to know you better as well as a company and they get you to weigh in on some of things that’s taken place across the globe. So for starters, we really enjoy letting our audience, affording them the opportunity of kind of getting to know who Shannon is, the person. So tell us about yourself. You know where you grew up, where you’re from, and give us maybe some some anecdotes on your upbringing.
[00:02:30] Well, let’s see. I am originally from Chicago. Okay. Born in Chicago, lived in the inner city Chicago Public School. Somehow I can still read and write. Then we moved to Wisconsin when I was near high school. My dad was a philosophy professor. His whole life he taught at Mundelein College in Chicago, which eventually got bought by Loyola.
[00:02:57] So philosophy as as a parent, you’re gonna outtalk yourself out of any situation I’m at?
[00:03:05] Oh, no. I mean, you know, philosophy is a very interesting subject out there. So it’s it’s there’s no right or wrong. You know, it’s more it’s a lot of theory. And so, you know, when I went to college, MTW Platteville and I went for engineering. So it’s like, you know, most kids can get help from their parents. You know, hey, dad, you know, what do I do now? None. So when I when I originally went to college, I was undecided. And then I finally, after a couple years, decided, hey, I’m going to be an engineer. And I and I switched my major to electrical engineering. And I remember my dad talking to me and saying, you know, why? Why’d you pick electrical engineering? I’m like, well, you know, it looked looked interesting and it had a pretty good starting salary. So I figured, you know, Horten, that, you know, I can at least go out and make a living. And my dad said to me, he goes, Well, son, let me tell you some. When I was in school, you know, I wanted to make one hundred thousand dollars a year. And he goes and look at me. And I’m like, yeah, the difference is, dad, I said, who’s gonna pay you 100 hundred grand a year to philosophize or whatever you do, right? And he looked at me. He goes, that’s a good point. Point. I guess maybe maybe you did the right thing.
[00:04:22] Got some deep, meaningful conversations picking out majors here.
[00:04:26] So University of Wisconsin, Platteville, you said, correct. Is that where you graduated with an elected logical engineering degree?
[00:04:33] Yep. So I graduated out of Platteville and then I got thrown right into this industry right away. And, you know, come out and I’m like, man, you got an engineering degree. I’m pretty smart guy. And you get thrown into this and you realize you’re not very smart.
[00:04:46] And I don’t know if that’s true, but I like your self-deprecating well. So when you graduated, what was what was your first role?
[00:04:55] So my first role I worked for a company in. Well, my very first role. Was I was a seconds shift electrician at Monroe truck. OK. And that lasted for about a month or so. I remember when they hired me, they asked they said, if you get another you if you get an offer at a place for electrical engineering, would you leave? And I’m like, yeah, I would. And they’re like, well, I appreciate the honesty. And they hired me anyways. And after a month I did. I got I actually got an offer from a company in Madison that was a small parcel manifesting software reseller. And they were looking for somebody go out and implement the software. And I thought, what the heck? It seems like a good idea. So that’s when I went and did left. And that’s when I really got thrown into this industry. So I. So this is in 1993. OK. At the time. So I used to go out and replace the hand manifesting. OK. So I go in to Company Madison. They’ve got the little pickup book. Then they would write in and you would print a little 9 line label. They just had the shipper number on it. And I put in software and integrated it to their Rs 400 or flat file. That’s how I started back in the DOS days.
[00:06:11] So this was this was probably fundamental learning and professional development opportunity based on where you are now. Right.
[00:06:20] Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, as an engineer, one of the things they taught us so they said, you know, when you graduate college, the information that you learn here will be useless because we’ll be out of date. They said our job is to teach you how to learn. And I believe that my my professors did a good job teaching me how to learn, because that’s this industry. I mean, it’s constantly changing. Absolutely. You know, there’s three Sheer things in life, death, taxes and a rate change. Yes. I mean, that’s. And I learned that when I got into this industry. And it’s like you’ve got to constantly stay up to date on everything.
[00:06:55] So as we’re still kind of walking our audience through your professional journey, kind of Reader’s Digest version before you’ve found it, right. Links, what was next in your career?
[00:07:05] Well, so I did that for a while. Then I worked at a WME company in Waukesha. My college roommate worked there. He got me in. So I did WME for a while. So I was the guy that understood shipping. So they always put me on the wave planning, picking, packing area. And then I remember sitting down with the architects. And the guys are really smart. And they’re like, hey, tell us about, you know, Passel. What’s a zone? Why is it? What’s the zone mean? And why does U.P.S. have their tracking number? Start with a one czy. Because, you know, these guys are smart guy. Right. And a lot of that stuff is very logical. And I’m like, that’s just how it is, man. You know, there’s no not a lot of logic sometimes with how things are done. It just is.
[00:07:54] So you were a bit of a subject matter expert on implementations, I guess.
[00:07:57] I you know, I guess that’s how they seemed. I don’t know. They seem to like me. I was a hard worker. I listened. I learned I did whatever they said. You know, the guy who taught me databases and now relational database theory. I remember walking into him one day and I’m like, you know, hey, how did you know this? You know, I called him on a weekend.
[00:08:21] I was on site and I had this query that wasn’t working well. I read him the from clause and there’s like 20 tables and he’s the homeowner’s lawn. You can hear the lawnmower idling. And he’s like, I’m halfway through. And he goes, well, we’ll hang on back up, OK? Flip those two tables around. And so I do. And poof, thing was perfect. And I’m like, so I get back to Waukesha next week and I’m like, Hey, how’d you know that? Thank you. Quite simple when you understand how Oracle works. And I’m like, well, how do you know that? Right. And he points at his bookshelf. Then it’s a bookshelf that’s like six feet long, full of books. And he’s like, wait, you just read about it? And I’m like, which one? He’s like, well, all of them. And I’m like, Oh, my lord.
[00:09:08] It’s amazing how some people’s brains work like that. And going back to your earlier point, which I think is a really important one.
[00:09:15] It is all about constant learning because you’re constantly learning and then applying, learning and applying. Right. And oftentimes applying in a different ever changing environment. Always. Yeah. OK. So I don’t want to skip ahead. But was there was there one more role that that really kind of teach you up for? Right.
[00:09:36] So then what happened after doing that for a little bit? I went back into the transportation side. We got acquired. So the company I became part owner. And then we got acquired by the company whose software we use. We resold. OK. So then I did that for a couple of years. I was the V.P. of professional services. And then when my time was up, that’s when I took some time and figured, you know what? I want to I think I want to go do this myself. I think I can. Maybe later. I did. You know, I took some time off. This was a late 90s. This would have been 2002. So we got acquired in 2000. We got acquired. So late 90s, I left the W my side, went back to transportation, did that for a couple years. We got acquired two thousand. So then in 0 2, my time was up and just kind of went home. My wife’s a teacher and she taught sixth grade. So she was teaching and I had two year old twin boys. So I took care of them and just kind of sat there and tried to figure out what am I going to do next and what do I have to learn? You know, where do I where do I go?
[00:10:41] And it’s really interesting to kind of hear your background of, you know, from the engineering and the technical side of the, you know, the electrician work you did to the technology and the database side and then marrying that those highly technical aspects to transportation and logistics.
[00:11:01] And then it sounds like on top of all of that foundational experience, you kind of have the entrepreneurial experience along the way as well.
[00:11:10] Right. I guess so. Yeah. I don’t know. I just, uh, I just always I always like solving the problem, but I never liked it. When you get stuck in that situation and they’re like, no, uh, it can’t be done. Like, really? I I think it’s a challenge. I think it can. Yes. I think there is an answer out there. You just gotta think a little bit harder.
[00:11:31] Ok. So twin two year old boys home in the early 2000s. Your wife is teaching sixth grade and you are considering applying all of this you’ve learned and kicking off a new venture. Right. Correct. Yeah. What was the you know, uh, um-hum.
[00:11:48] I’ve had several start ups on my own and in my journey. And usually there’s a moment that says after all of the deliberation, this is what we’re gonna do. You know what? Tell us about that moment for you.
[00:11:59] Always winner. So. So. So in my head, I’m like, OK, I’ve always been on the implementation side. So if I’m going to do this, I need to get on the other side. I need to get more on the sales side, run on the company side. I’ve had some great mentors in the past. Some guys it taught me a lot about business. And the one thing they all had in common was they were all great golfers. So I took that summer. So it was like August through snowfall. So I lived down in the suburbs of Chicago at the time and I went and I learned how to golf. OK. So the so the magic part for me was they closed the golf courses and I’m like, well, it’s time to get to work, I guess.
[00:12:44] And so you’re you’re a pretty avid golfer, are you?
[00:12:48] I am now. Yeah. OK. That’s when I started in 0 2 is when I started golfing.
[00:12:52] So when I was in, I was a tennis player my whole life. I played tennis a Platteville and then picked up golf in 0 2. And, uh. Yeah. And then when winter hit. So that’s why the company was started in December of 0 2 was I had to do something. Okay. Yeah. My wife wouldn’t let me just hang out and do nothing.
[00:13:14] All right. So before we we kind of keep talking about the right league, right link’s journey. Let’s talk about what the company does. What? Explain to or in a nutshell what is the right links to.
[00:13:25] What we do is we help companies take their ship track and pay data and turn it into savings. OK. And that can mean a lot of different solutions out there. One of the big things that we’re noticing and it’s kind of one of our campaigns is here is that freight audit is dead. Right. And what we mean by that is the concepts around it is dead. So we have a whole zombie thing going on right now. And the reason why we use that is when you look at the issues today, not in afraid audit side. They afraid audit really celebrates the fact that there is exceptions in the data. Hey, you’ve got KERA’s Bill. You wrong? All we’re gonna fix it. It’s like they don’t really fix it. Right. They just continually treat that symptom right. Just that invoice down. But you don’t have good clean data. They’re looking more to adjust an invoice than to collect intelligence data for you. And the zombies are the exceptions that you think you killed. But now they’re undead. They come back and we run into that a lot with companies where, you know, solving root cause it just symptoms. Exactly. They’re more symptom hunting than root cause analysis. And what they do then is companies will bring it in house and then now they’ve got to deal with the exceptions. And what happens is they solve it one time, but they don’t really have a system in place to monitor it and make sure that it stays away. And that’s where all of a sudden the, you know, pops back up. Right. You know, you thought you buried it. And here comes the hand out of the dirt.
[00:14:59] He’s like, wait, wait. And it’s you can waste so much time.
[00:15:04] You know, in this era when things are changing so fast, like you alluded to earlier. Everyone’s stretched thin, especially in Supply chain. You already have a bunch of problems that aren’t necessarily recurring that you’re having to solve and fires are put out.
[00:15:21] Gosh, who wants to audit and correct the same mistakes over and over again? Who’s got time for that? I’ve found nobody. Yeah, nobody wants to write.
[00:15:29] But they kind of have to. And and that’s where what what we see happening is that companies are taking highly skilled people and shifting part of their job to handle this exception. So rather than having your people do the strategy development right and managing the true exceptions that do come up every day, they’re too busy dealing with little data problems. And in the hardest part about it is everything’s in the past. And it’s like, do you remember what you did last week on Tuesday morning at 9:00 a.m. when this shipment occurred?
[00:16:04] No, not techno right between kids and supply chain. UPS EFT. Eat my memory away. Right. Okay.
[00:16:12] So, um, before we talk about where you spend your time as founder and CEO now and where you some your favorite places been your time, can you, um, uh, can you kind of give an example of the folks who really understand what right links does and kind of up apply it in a practical man? Give us a quick example about.
[00:16:33] Sure. So there’s let’s see. Mm hmm. Trying to think of the best examples. So the common ones that we run into. So we walk into brand new customers, common themes that we run into. One is that they’ve created rate tolerances in place. Like as long as that, it’s within ten dollars. Right. That’s good enough. Let it let it go. Well, the problem with that is that ten dollars is because there is a root cause in there of something. And it’s usually the fact that there’s, you know, a misunderstood rule or a rule that’s not complete or you’re causing a carrier to do something manual. So we’ll come in, we’ll get rid of that rate tolerance to justify our existence.
[00:17:20] That’s a powerful notion. Uh uh. Your tolerances exists certainly for a reason.
[00:17:25] And in ten dollars, you know, one off does not kill anybody. But gosh, you think of thousands of transactions. Yeah, huge opportunity. Right. And that’s what they tend to lose track of because you’re dealing everything is very anecdotal is what I’ve learned. It’s that one time. That’s what I learned in the industry. It’s like, you know, hey, why won’t you use that carrier? And it’s like that one time in 1998 when they came in and they destroyed something like Schepers. That was a long time ago. And it’s like, that’s right. And I’ll never forget.
[00:17:55] But yeah, yeah, we’re gonna we’re gonna adjust our whole process around this one off.
[00:18:01] We absolutely are. And that’s why they put a rate tolerance in. The other scenario that we run into a lot is if I shift to the track and trace side, you’ve got track and trace where customers are having problems because the tracking information is not connecting to this ship incorrectly. And it’s like, oh, by the way, did you talk to your friend on it, guys? You know, the company, it’s usually within the same company that people are doing that themselves, too. And it’s like they’re probably having the same problem on the invoice side. It’s the exact same symptom to the same problem. And what we find is it’s either going to be master data related. So if we talk about the exceptions, are iZombie, how do you solve that problem? Well, you got to come up with the the right. What is it? Antidote. Whatever you want to call it. And it’s going to exist in either master data is wrong or you’ve got a process problem that’s wrong out there. And that’s what we find a lot of. And by collecting the data and putting them into easy to understand categories, the exceptions, it’s very easy now to have a different conversation with the carrier, to say, hey, how come every time I do this type of shipment and this problem happens? And ultimately, that’s what we find is it’s either going to be the master data is off or they have a process in place that is causing the problem. Mm hmm.
[00:19:26] You know, one element of what you’re sharing that, uh, um, I can really appreciate is you’re allowing everyone to like a everyday person that may not be a data technologist or they may not be a data analyst. You’re you’re lowering the playing field so everyone can understand and address these problems.
[00:19:47] Yeah. I mean, it’s about solving the problem, not not pointing a finger, not not causing blame. And that’s where I’ve noticed that. You know what happens? So if you’re the customer, you’re the shipper in this scenario. You just get exasperated and you’re like, oh, my God, this is happening again. I thought I solved this problem. And then you got the carrier on the other side thinking, oh, boy, here we go again. And it’s like sometimes you need, you know, that objective third party to come in and say, hey, look, guys, let’s just solve this problem and let’s talk it through. And ultimately, that’s what we find is there’s just something that’s been awry for years. Yeah.
[00:20:23] Ok. So now that we all think we really got to have a good common understanding of what Right Links does. Well, let’s talk about that. You know, as CEO. Where do you spend your time and what was your favorite activity?
[00:20:38] Well, as a CEO of a growing company, I spend my time in a bunch of areas right now, and it’s really around establishing our our leadership that we need inside. You know, I can’t do everything right more. So I’ve I’ve come to grips with that years ago. And it’s like I’m glad that I know some people out there that are really strong that I’ve met along the way that have joined us. And we’re where I really enjoy spending my time. Is more on the sales side helping explain how we’re gonna solve these problems, because every place we go, nobody believes it, because how many times have they been told by somebody else? Right. In the industry that, oh, yeah, we’re going to save you X percent or hey, we’re just gonna knock this out. And then it’s like, where’s the beef? Exactly. But what they don’t do and that’s what my job is and where I really enjoyed doing what I do is coming in and giving them practical examples and walking them through it from start to finish. That way, they have that tangible evidence that says, oh, my gosh, maybe this is different.
[00:21:42] Yes. You know, I always use out of date cliches. And then for some of our listeners, that may be just coming in the industry that where’s the beef phrase was a kind of a famous commercial during the 80s. Wendy’s, the hamburger franchise was running this this campaign featuring ladies ordering what a big restaurant was promising is a big burger. And then they got the burger and the tylo Patty. And then this one one lady had this one female actor had this famous line, Where’s the beef? And it went on for a year or more. I think she made movie appearances, you name it, big 80s throwback there. Okay. So let’s let’s kind of go broader here. Let’s talk about there’s so much going on. We’ve already come alluded to a couple of times across the global into in Supply chain industry. And I’m not I’m not sure you all do business globally. Or do you focus more on North America or. We do.
[00:22:40] We do have global customer culture. And, you know, it’s same, you know, dealing with the data from all different carriers, all different countries, pretty much the same root cause.
[00:22:51] All right. So let’s talk about let’s shift gears.
[00:22:54] And, you know, as you as you survey the landscape of the current global business environment, what’s a trend or two or an issue or a topic that really has gotten your attention more than others?
[00:23:04] Was it what was just when it comes, you know, for me, I’m always more on the technology side is where I focus everything. And I’m still looking at, you know, emerging markets and how technology is going to impact those emerging markets. You know, coming from early 90s till now, you can see a lot of similarities in some of the emerging markets where they’re back still in the early 90s. Right. So it’s like you think of a large global company today. And how did they manage all of that? You know, the entire supply chain when a big part of their supply chain is still stuck. You know, 30 years ago. Right. And you said, would you argue that that’s more common than folks may may think? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We really get spoiled here in the US and we also get spoiled because of our personal life. You know, you think about you go to work and you’re tracking shipments that are either on a boat and on a truck. And what you’re expecting is the same experience you get when you order something online from Amazon and you’re wondering, why can’t I get that? And it’s like, well, we kind of forget that that experience is 25 years old. So I always liken things to to, you know, fewer 25 years old compared to 2 years old. Right. A lot different. I used to. Filiz. Holy cow. You drive and your insurance is dropped. Now, finally, you’re deemed to be safe. And as a 2 year old, you’re still kind of laying in there in diapers. And it’s like. So it’s like, why doesn’t that 2 year old work the same way as twenty 25 year old?
[00:24:48] It’s like, huh, that’s a great analogy. Let’s see what else. When you’re so much, you know. So it sounds like you’re as our listeners might expect. Really keeping your finger on the pulse from a technology standpoint. What else stands out in today’s environment?
[00:25:05] I’d say today’s environment. You know, probably the next thing to worry about is definitely going to be. Not only is the data secure, but how do you keep it in a in a spot where you have that contingency? Because really, that’s probably going to be the next big thing to worry about. Sure. And, you know, that’s where if companies globally are now starting to collect all that data that they need to run their their business, you know, where do they keep it? How do they make it usable and then how do they keep it secure? And I think that is what we’re going to run into. You know, we can sit here, we talk all day long about supply chain disruption and corona virus. Right. I can do all that stuff, but it all comes down to the same basic point of somewhere. Some person in a company is running analysis, using data to run these simulations to say, OK, if I can’t source out of China right now because of this event. Right. And this event right now is just Corona virus. Then what am I going to do? How is the impact has an impact. My lead times has an impact. My cause. That’s ultimately what it comes down to in the way that they do that. So what data? So that’s why to me, that’s the foundational fundamental piece of everything. So how do you how do you do that and then how do you keep it secure? Yeah.
[00:26:26] So you shared a lot there. I think like one of the points you basically stated, because there is as anyone that turns on and with with good reason. But the team one turns on news or anything else these days, coronavirus will be one of the top things covered as it should be.
[00:26:43] But your greater point there, it makes me think about ocean shipping. So ocean shipping was just waiting for the trade war to kind of break through. And then we got that with the schedule one trade deal. And just as they were getting ready to recoup some of the losses and then get back to some sort of of normalcy, you know, we get hit with a corona virus. And now we’re talking about just last night after more than 50 sailings that have been canceled in January and February come out of China. And the ports are getting backed up. Unfortunately, we’re this is going to be an even a bigger impact by most analysts views then than the trade war. But to your point, there’s got to be another hit. The hits keep coming, as always, some threat. So you’ve got to elevate. What I’m hearing you say is regardless of whatever the current thing we’re getting hit with now, you got to elevate how you plan using data. Yeah. So you’re prepared to make better decisions and your business is in a stronger place because you’re taking advantage and eliminating some of these. Oh, you’re a tennis player. What’s unforced errors? Right. That’s really what it is.
[00:27:57] Yeah. When you get down to it, right? Yeah. I mean, you know, you look at the eventually something’s gonna happen. So without the data, you know, to measure and monitor and, you know, be able to know where are my impacts, what are my risks? What happens is you get a lot of fear. Fear comes out of lack of knowledge, I believe. And you know what gives you confidence in making decisions as facts? The more information you have that you can draw on in the past, the more confident you’re gonna be, the faster you’re gonna move forward. Because a lot of companies, the reason why they’re slow in reacting isn’t because they can’t make a decision. It’s because they’re uncertain of the decisions they’re making. And they’re double checking, triple checking, quadruple checking. And people from the outside think all you’re just slow. It’s like, well, not really. I’m just not confident, right. That this is the right answer to do. And it’s like, you know, when you’re playing a sport, that’s when you get tentative, you know, don’t don’t get tentative, you know, be confident, hit through it. Right. You know, that’s what you got to do. And I think that’s why, you know, if we look at the trend, I’m sure if we if we had data that we can map out to look at the trend of supply chain disruptions, you’d see blips going through it a fairly regular basis. And I would bet that we would see that it’s getting more often right now and probably so. And then you dig into it. OK. What caused that? And it’s like at a certain point, it’s like, does it does it matter what caused it or should we be looking at what did we do to mitigate that risk and what are some of our longer term strategies that we should put in place so that when these happen. Right. We’re covered. Okay.
[00:29:40] Um, where I want to make sure our listeners know where they can find more more clearly with the right links. What I’ve observed at least is you’ve been recognized by a couple different groups from an award standpoint. You are active on social media. I’m not sure. Do you get out and Keith. I know y’all got plenty of business here. Get out the keynote. Get out the conference as much we do.
[00:30:02] I mean, we just came back from rela, OK? Yesterday just came back from rela. So, yeah, we go to the rela CSC MP will be at. And then, you know, we’re always around on the Web. Shoot us an e-mail, give us a call and your u._r._l for rate links w w w dot rate links dot com our ATDC ally x ok. That’s simple enough.
[00:30:26] I’ll tell you a little curve ball rela real is a well known conference. Yeah. What was your favorite, eh? Can you give us a um a gleaning from your favorite conversation or s- or a keynote or presentation. What was your favorite aspect about rela?
[00:30:39] So my favorite. My favorite conversation was we had a company come up to us. We had talked to them last year. Okay. Rela. And they said, no, we’re about to go do this pilot with a track and trace provider. And so they came back and they’re like, okay, we did it. And you know what we found. We found that ah ah. EEI was just as good as their API data. And I looked down on like well you know why. Right. And they’re like, why? And I said, it comes from the same database. You said, so. Do you want to get the same wrong information? You know, instantly or are you just going to get it? three-D? I am like that’s the problem. It’s a lot of myths out there. And, you know, they try to you know, they think that by throwing some technology at it with something new, even though, you know, Web service API isn’t new and that’s, what, 17 years old. Right now, it’s like, you know, oh, my gosh, that’s gonna fix the problem. It’s like, no, no, no, that’s not gonna fix that problem. Again, it comes down to do the right master data. You have good processes in place. And then how are you measuring and monitoring that to make sure it stays healthy? And that’s the that’s one thing nobody thinks about. You know, we all go in for our checkups. We all go to the dentist twice a year. We go to the eye doctor. But on the data side, we just figure, well, once I mean, I did it 10 years ago, isn’t that good enough? I don’t understand.
[00:32:05] Nothing changes, right? Nothing changes. So humans, I guess, um, they want to get your dad away and a philosopher weigh in on that maybe. Yeah. Um. All right. So one last question for you. The most important question of the day. So as an avid golfer. Yeah. For folks that visit the Scottsdale, Tempe, Phenix area, what’s what’s, uh. A great golf course. Oh, man. Or one. There’s plenty out it. What’s your favorite, I guess?
[00:32:31] Well, greyhawk is definitely good. Um, especially since my son interned there last summer. So I gotta say. greyhawk, uh. Kintaro Love. Kintaro Southern Dunes. Man Bunch. Um, they’re all so good. greyhawk though I hug someone pretty close to my house. That’s the one that we were definitely gonna hit out here in a couple weeks.
[00:32:52] All right. Good deal. Well, Shane, I really have enjoyed the time you spent with us. Uh, Faneuil’s business model. Fascinating. And now that I’ve had a chance to sit down and kind of see where it emanates from and it makes a lot more sense. So to our listeners, you can check Shannon Vaillancourt team out at rate Linx dot com right. Car ATDC l in x-com. Really appreciate your time. Thank you very much, Scott. You bet. And so to our listeners, uh, you know, stay tuned as we continue our coverage of the Dems conference here in Scottsdale, Arizona. A lot more keynotes and other folks that are here sharing some of their thought leadership. Also, be sure to check out our events and our webinar tabs at Supply Chain Now Radio dot com. We’ve got a variety of in-person and digital events coming up with folks like T Rorters Events, Resilience 360, the Automotive Industry Action Group and much, much more you can check out at Supply Chain Now Radio dot com. Again, thanks to Shannon and the Right Leak’s team to our audience. Check out wherever you’re podcast from. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a thing. On behalf of the entire team here, this is Scott Luton wishing you a wonderful week ahead and we’ll see you next time on Supply chain now.
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Shannon Vaillancourt is the President and Founder of RateLinx. He started the company in 2002 with the idea that there was a better way to give companies complete visibility to their supply chain. Since then, RateLinx has become a leading supply chain software and data services company that gives retailers, manufacturers, and distributors the ability to ship, track, and pay for their freight. Before founding RateLinx, Shannon held several leadership and technical roles in software engineering, solutions, and services. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Connect with Shannon on LinkedIn.
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